David Cameron was rebuffed by the German chancellor yesterday after failing in
a group attempt with the Swedes and the Dutch to persuade Angela Merkel to
consider an alternative to the appointment of an arch-federalist as the next
head of the European commission.

After talking into the early hours at the country house of Fredrik Reinfeldt,
the Swedish prime minister, Mrs Merkel said that she stood by Jean-Claude
Juncker, the former long-serving Luxembourg prime minister, who is the
candidate of the conservative European People’s Party, and, for Downing
Street, the symbol of everything wrong with the EU’s federalist ambitions.